


Not That Bad

by ThatPeskyAloe



Category: SCP Foundation
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Coffee, Coffee Date(?), E-mail, Embarrassment, Light-Hearted, M/M, Memories, Paperwork, Reminiscing, Slice of Life, The OCs are just one off gals to further the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 18:56:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19836472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatPeskyAloe/pseuds/ThatPeskyAloe
Summary: Despite working on the same site, Kondraki realises he hasn't seen Clef in a while. So he invites him for coffee in a totally platonic manner. Just guys being dudes. No gay thoughts or feelings here. No siree bub.





	Not That Bad

Dr Kondraki looked up from his coffee to see a pair of fresh faced personnel in front of him. One of them nervously clutched a clipboard, the other had her hands free but looked like she wished she had one too, just to occupy her hands. Their name tags read 'Junior Research Assistant Anne Morrison' and 'Junior Research Assistant Marie Thompson' respectively. He raised an eyebrow as they seemed to confer with each other briefly, hushed.

"So." he said finally, "Do you need something, or are you just gonna stand there?"

They both seemed to startle at the question, fumbling over words that Kondraki couldn't make out. Eventually the one with the clipboard nudged the other forward encouragingly, who finally began to speak.

"Um, Dr Kondraki..."

"Yeah, that's my name." Kondraki deadpanned, taking a sip of coffee, "Do you need something or what?"

"Well, not necessarily, but... Well, we heard some things, and... Well... We were wondering if-"

The one with the clipboard butted in impatiently as Kondraki raised his mug back up to his lips. "We were wondering if, if you and Dr Clef were an item!"

Kondraki damn near spat out his coffee, but managed to just choke on it. He coughed for a minute, then set his mug down to avoid doing it again. He then turned his attention to the pair, who were beginning to look as though they would rather not be there.

"...What?" was all he could say.

"Well, we just heard some rumours that you guys were... You know, a thing..." Morrison trailed off.

"So we figured if we wanted to know if it was true, we should ask you!"

Kondraki piched the bridge of his nose, half out of exasperation and half because he'd got coffee in it when he choked, and it _hurt_. How the hell were you even meant to get coffee out of your nose, anyway? He'd need to know. "Why not ask Clef?"

"Well..." Thompson looked embarrassed, "Dr Clef is kinda scary. And we couldn't find him."

Kondraki sighed. How was he going to give an answer that didn't sound like some schoolgirl skirting around saying she liked some boy? If he fucked this up and gave them something all vague, they were gonna go away thinking they _were_ a thing. If he gave something too quick, it'd look like an excuse.

"Hell no. I hate that bastard." yes, perfect.

The pair looked surprised, Thompson especially, "Ah, really? Most people told us that you at least seemed like friends..."

"I dunno where they got that idea." Kondraki dismissed, then spoke again before either of them could ask anything else, "Now, don't you ladies have work to do?"

He watched as they startled and scampered off, their apologies for wasting his time and such trailing away with them. Picking up his mug again, he downed the contents and dumped it in the dishwasher. He had work to get on with too. But before that, he'd be searching 'how to wash out your nose'.

* * *

  
  
This was just embarrassing, even without anyone to see him. More embarrassing than being seen rinsing his nose in the bathroom.

He couldn't focus. He didn't think that what that pair had said would get to him in the slightest, but here he was; he'd barely written a sentence of the incident report he'd been meaning to get around to for ages. This felt thoroughly unfair; he hadn't had the time to do it for weeks, and now that he did he couldn't. Typical bullshit. Those girls might have been the ones to bring Clef up, but he was going to blame Clef himself for this lapse in concentration.

It was sort of understandable for people to think they were friends, he'd grant them that. They hadn't been at each others throats too much recently, and he guessed they had their moments. The occasional (slightly too hot) coffee dropped off on his desk when he really needed it. Laughing over tests gone horribly wrong at the water cooler when they had some downtime, to avoid thinking about how much worse it could have gone. Seeing how many plastic cups they could stack on a sleeping Kain to procrastinate on working. Going to the medical bay together after Kain woke up and bit them, still laughing.

He remembered taking a bullet for him, once. He didn't know what came over him, really; that D-Class broke free and a second later he was in front of Clef with a growing stain on his clothes. The one day he'd worn one of those damned, starch white labcoats, too. The next thing he knew, he was in the nearest medical wing with a beeping heartrate monitor giving him a headache.

Apparently, according to the nurse, Clef had only left his bedside because he'd been called to deal with an incident offsite. He came back to bother him once he was done, of course. With a get well soon card and everything. He'd bought him dinner after that, once he got out of hospital and he actually enjoyed it too, despite the company. Come to think of it he hadn't seen him in a while, but he knew he was onsite somewhere...

He sighed and opened his emails. 

>   
>  From: benjamin.kondraki@██████████.com
> 
> To: alto.clef@██████████.com
> 
> Subject: Possible discussion  
>  If you're available, I'd like to get coffee with you and talk some about recent events. There's a lot for me to fill you in on, and it would be beneficial for me to know what you've been working on. Let me know a time and place that would be convenient.

No, that was way too formal for something so mundane. He deleted it all and tried again. 

>   
>  From: benjamin.kondraki@██████████.com
> 
> To: alto.clef@██████████.com
> 
> Subject: Catching up  
>  Hey, haven't seen you in a while. If you have the time, let's get coffee and catch up- I bet you've been up to a lot. My treat.

Nope, no. That made it sound just a little too much like a date. 

>   
>  From: benjamin.kondraki@██████████.com
> 
> To: alto.clef@██████████.com 
> 
> Subject: Messing with some Juniors  
>  A couple of junior researchers asked if we were an item earlier. I told them no, but we should go get coffee later. You can hang onto my arm, just to mess with them. Sound fun?

...Not bad at first glance. But after he read it over a few times it looked more and more like a cheap, clunky excuse to see him. He'd try one last time, and if he didn't come up with something decent he'd just scrap the idea.

>   
>  From: benjamin.kondraki@██████████.com
> 
> To: alto.clef@██████████.com
> 
> Subject: Oi, bastard  
>  Haven't seen you around recently. Let's grab coffee; I have shit to tell you about.

...Fuck it, it'd do. He hit send, and hoped he'd get a reply soon.

* * *

Kondraki was scouring through a list of common complaints when he got an email. He told himself he could wait and check in a minute when he was done, but soon found himself putting the papers down and opening his emails, finding it was Clef, like he'd hoped.

>   
>  From: alto.clef@██████████.com
> 
> To: benjamin.kondraki@██████████.com
> 
> Subject: Oi, bastard  
>  Sure, on my way to your office now. Prepare. I have a lot to complain about over this coffee.

Wait, right now? Well, shit. He put the papers to the side to deal with later, getting up and stretching. Hopefully he'd have a minute before he got here to sort a couple of things out real quick.

Suddenly, a knock sounded on the door. A second later, Clef's voice rang out from behind it.

"Hey, Konny! Ready for me to complain?"

Kondraki sighed and went to the door. He opened it to find Clef standing there as expected, looking as smug and annoying as ever. Not too unwelcome a sight, for once.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Oh boy, where do I begin...?"

"You can't even wait until we actually get coffee?"

Kondraki locked the door to his office and took a few steps away from it, beginning to walk away. Clef caught up to him quickly with a second or two of light jogging, hands clasped behind his back.

"Nope"

Clef grinned. Kondraki sighed. This was going to be a very, very long coffee break...

But hey, maybe it wouldn't be that bad.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Fact: This was originally going to be a tale on the actual SCP site, but I got some critique that said it was probably a better fit here. So here it is! To be fair, it was a bit fanfictiony for the main site lmao.
> 
> (I do have an actual tale up, though~ It's about Able and the Omega-7, and you can take a look at it here: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/dodgeball)


End file.
